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Dallas Cowboys tight end Rico Gathers (80) mimics a basketball shot after scoring a touchdown in a game against the Arizona Cardinals during the first quarter of play of the Hall of Fame Game at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio on Thursday, August 3, 2017. (Vernon Bryant/The Dallas Morning News)

It appears Cowboys tight end Rico Gathers will have to wait another year to make his regular season debut.

The college-basketball-star-turned-NFL-draft-pick has been out since suffering a concussion in training camp. Although Gathers has been seen around The Star in recent weeks, it's unlikely that he will be removed from the injured reserve this season.

"Any time you get on that reserve you're not necessarily required to bring them back," Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said Monday on 105.3 The Fan's G-Bag Nation show [KRLD-FM]. "When a guy like Rico, who is obviously learning the game, misses this much time because he did have to sit out even more so than the minimum amount of time because of his injury, it's going to be a work in progress that he can just step right back in because he hadn't played a lot of football.

"Probably at the end of the day because we had other tight ends on our roster, probably the best thing for him is going to be start fresh there in the offseason and get back in the groove and get another offseason under his belt. We have great expectations for him, but I think real difficult after sitting out this long for him to come in and really make a difference."

Gathers, a sixth-round pick in 2016, spent all of last season on the Cowboys' practice squad.

But during the preseason earlier this year, Gathers turned some heads with his ability as a pass-catcher. In two games, Gathers hauled in seven passes for 106 yards and two touchdowns.

Defensive end Randy Gregory remains on the Cowboys' reserve/suspended list.

Gregory, a 2015 second-round pick, is currently serving a suspension of at least one year for violating the NFL's substance abuse policy.

It is his third suspension. Gregory began the 2016 season with a four-game suspension before the league announced it was adding 10 games because of another failed drug test.

Could Gregory rejoin the team for training camp next year?

"Those are all things where it's kind of wait and see," Jones said Monday. "Obviously those are very serious things that Randy's dealing with, and certainly we have nothing but the utmost respect of looking out for what's best for him personally in his overall life, first and foremost.

"If he can get his hands around all of that, then no one would love to have him back here more than Jerry [Jones], myself, Coach Garrett, would love to get him back. So as we've seen around the league when these players are suspended for a year, it's a little process of them getting reinstated.

"But we certainly hope Randy is doing well and doing everything the right way. We're certainly rooting for him because he's a good person that obviously has some significant issues in his life that he's trying to overcome and get right."